Charles Morgan is the third generation boss of the 100-year-old classic British motor heritage brand that bears his family name.

However, the former ITN news cameraman put part of the credit for his family company’s victory in the Midlands regional ﬁnal of HSBC’s Business Thinking programme at the door of Mike Smith, a graduate recruited nine months ago.

“My chief feeling is that I am so proud for Mike Smith who was my co-presenter to the judges,” said Mr Morgan after receiving the award.

“He is a young graduate who joined us nine months ago and is part of a young team of people at Morgan who are transforming the business by completely redesigning our website and internet management.

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“The future for Morgan is, to an extent, not just about producing great products but also about the way we market a car. Marketing now is not about telling people how good you are. Marketing now is about a two-way process of communication, which is revealed through a long discussion on such things as Facebook, your website and email, so you can link your stories to what the customer actually wants.”

Morgan, which started assembling cars in 1910, now employs 175 workers in Malvern, has a turnover of about £30m and makes about 1,000 cars a year. Its cars take at least 12 days to make and cost between £25,000-£125,000.

The company already exports about 75pc of its production, selling cars in Europe, the US, Japan, South Africa and New Zealand but intends to use the Business Thinking prize of lending of up to £6m and a ﬁnancial reward of up to £120,000 for a push into Latin America and elsewhere in Asia.

“The money will go on expansion of marketing to completely new markets,” said Mr Morgan. “We’re not in China, India, Turkey or Brazil and the money will go to those markets. It’s not cheap to launch a brand in a market that’s never heard of you.

"We have appointed dealers for Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing and some money will support their marketing."